Method of Enhancing Uplink Transmission and Related Communication Device

ABSTRACT

A method of enhancing uplink transmission or signaling for a mobile in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method comprises receiving a signaling or configuration message of at least one spectrum technology utilized for corresponding uplink transmission or signaling; and applying each of the at least one spectrum technology for each corresponding uplink transmission or signaling according to the signaling or the configuration message.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/332,184 filed on May 6, 2010 and entitled “Method and Apparatus for enhancement of Uplink Power Control and SRS”, the contents of which are incorporated herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The application relates to a method and a related communication device used in a wireless communication system and related communication device, and more particularly, to a method of enhancing uplink transmission and a related communication device in a wireless communication system.

2. Description of the Prior Art

A long-term evolution (LTE) system, initiated by the third generation partnership project (3GPP), is now being regarded as a new radio interface and radio network architecture that provides a high data rate, low latency, packet optimization, and improved system capacity and coverage. In the LTE system, an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) includes a plurality of evolved Node-Bs (eNBs) and communicates with a plurality of mobile stations, also referred as to user equipments (UEs).

A long term evolution-advanced (LTE-A) system, as its name implies, is an evolution of the LTE system, considering relaying for cost-effective throughput enhancement and coverage extension. For example, a relay can be deployed at the cell edge where the eNB is unable to provide required radio quality/throughput for the UEs or at certain location where radio signals of the eNB cannot cover. The LTE-A system can support a wider bandwidth up to 100 MHz to satisfy requirement for peak data rate. Coordinated multi-point (CoMP) transmission/reception is considered for the LTE-A as a tool to improve the coverage of high data rates, the cell-edge throughput and/or to increase system throughput. The main idea of the CoMP transmission/reception is as follows: when a UE is in the cell-edge region, it may be able to receive signals from multiple cell sites and the transmission of the UE may be received at multiple cell sites regardless of the system load. Given that, if the signaling transmitted from the multiple cell sites is coordinated, the DL performance can be increased significantly. This coordination can be simple as in the techniques that focus on interference avoidance or more complex as in the case where the same data is transmitted from multiple cell sites. For the UL, since the signal can be received by multiple cell sites, if the scheduling is coordinated from the different cell sites, the system can take advantage of this multiple reception to significantly improve the link performance.

In general, reference signals can be embedded into transmitted signals. The reference signals are multiplexed with the data symbols (which are unknown at the receiver) either in frequency, time or code domain. The uplink reference signals in LTE are mostly based on Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequences. Theses sequences satisfy the desirable properties for reference signals, exhibiting 0 dB, ideal cyclic autocorrelation, and optimal cross-correlation. In order for a cell to support uplink transmissions of different bandwidths, it is necessary to assign a cell at least one base reference signal (RS) sequence for each possible resource block size.

Sequence hopping and/or sequence group hopping of reference signal sequence(s) may not be sufficient in HetNet deployment to mitigate intra-cell/inter-cell interference. For, there might be more than 30 cells having the same hopping pattern while their base sequence and cyclic time shift are not under control of Macro cell (s) or network planning. In addition, the sequence hopping/shift patterns are decided every radio frame and/or by cell ID and/or broadcast signaling of sequence offset for RS on PUSCH.

The roles of the uplink reference signals include enabling channel estimation to aid coherent demodulation, channel quality estimation for uplink scheduling, power control, timing estimation an direction-of-arrival estimation to support downlink beamforming. Two types of reference signal are supported on uplink: demodulation reference signal (DM RS) and sounding reference signal (SRS).

The SRS are primarily used for channel quality estimation to enable frequency-selective scheduling on the uplink. In order to support frequency-selective scheduling between multiple UEs, it is necessary that SRS from different UEs with different sounding bandwidths can overlap. In order to support this, Interleaved FDMA (IFDMA, introduced in Section 15.2) is used in the SRS SCFDMA symbol, with a RePetition Factor (RPF) of 2. In addition, more flexibility should be provided for the bandwidth allocation between UEs. However, in HetNet deployment, such flexibility becomes important to randomize possible interference since scheduling coordination among cells in HetNet is relatively difficult.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method of enhancing uplink transmission in a wireless communication system is provided.

A method of enhancing uplink transmission or signaling for a mobile in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method comprises receiving a signaling or configuration message of at least one spectrum technology utilized for corresponding uplink transmission or signaling; and applying each of the at least one spectrum technology for each corresponding uplink transmission or signaling according to the signaling or the configuration message.

A method of enhancing uplink transmission for a network in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method comprises sending a signaling or a configuration message to a mobile device to dynamically or semi-statically change a configuration of the mobile device for uplink transmission or signaling by the mobile device.

A method of enhancing uplink transmission for a network in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method comprises dynamically changing at least one of a repetition factor (RPF), length of a sounding reference signal (SRS) sequence, dynamic SRS transmission duration, the number of the SRS sequence, the number of cyclic time shift, and transmission comb for dynamic SRS transmission.

A communication device of enhancing uplink transmission or signaling for a mobile in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The communication device comprises means for receiving a signaling or configuration message of at least one spectrum technology utilized for corresponding uplink transmission or signaling; and means for applying each of the at least one spectrum technology for each corresponding uplink transmission or signaling according to the signaling or the configuration message.

A communication device of enhancing uplink transmission for a network in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The communication device comprises means for sending a signaling or a configuration message to a mobile device to dynamically or semi-statically change a configuration of the mobile device for uplink transmission or signaling by the mobile device.

A communication device of enhancing uplink transmission for a network in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The communication device comprises means for dynamically changing at least one of a repetition factor (RPF), length of a sounding reference signal (SRS) sequence, dynamic SRS transmission duration, the number of the SRS sequence, the number of cyclic time shift, and transmission comb for dynamic SRS transmission.

These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary wireless communication system.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary communication device.

FIG. 3 illustrates the program code in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of an exemplary process.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of an exemplary process.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of an exemplary process.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary wireless communication system 10. The wireless communication system 10 can be an LTE-Advanced system, or other mobile communication systems (e.g. LTE, WCDMA, HSPA, GSM, EDGE, etc.). The wireless communication system 10 is briefly composed of a network and a plurality of user equipments (UEs), as the structure illustrated in FIG. 1. In the LTE-Advanced system, the network is referred as an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) comprising a plurality of evolved base stations (eNBs). The UEs can be devices such as mobile phones, computer systems, etc. Besides, the network and the UE can be seen as a transmitter or receiver according to transmission direction, e.g., for uplink (UL), the UE is the transmitter and the network is the receiver, and for downlink (DL), the network is the transmitter and the UE is the receiver.

Please refer to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary communication device 20. The communication device 20 can be the UE or the network shown in FIG. 1 and may include a processing means 200 such as a microprocessor or ASIC, a memory unit 210, and a communication interfacing unit 220. The memory unit 210 may be any data storage device that can store program code 214 for access by the processing means 200. Examples of the memory unit 210 include but are not limited to a subscriber identity module (SIM), read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), CD-ROMs, magnetic tapes, floppy disks, and optical data storage devices. The communication interfacing unit 220 is preferably a radio transceiver for wirelessly communicating with the network according to processing results of the processing means 200.

Please refer to FIG. 3, which illustrates the program code 214 in FIG. 2. The program code 214 includes program code of multiple communications protocol layers, which from top to bottom are a radio resource control (RRC) layer 300, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer 310, a radio link control (RLC) layer 320, a medium access control (MAC) layer 330 and a physical (PHY) layer 340. The PHY layer 340 includes physical channels, such as Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUCCH), Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDCCH).

Please refer to FIG. 4, which is a flow chart of an exemplary process 40. The process 40 is used for enhancing uplink transmission for a UE in a wireless communication system. The wireless communication system could be the wireless communication system 10. The process 40 can be compiled into the program code 214 and includes the following steps:

Step 400: Start.

Step 402: Receive a signaling or configuration message of at least one spectrum technology utilized for corresponding uplink transmission or signaling.

Step 404: Apply each of the at least one spectrum technology for each corresponding uplink transmission or signaling according to the signaling or the configuration message.

Step 406: End.

According to the process 40, the UE receives the signaling or configuration message of at least one spectrum technology utilized for corresponding uplink transmission or signaling from a network. Preferably, the signaling may be referred as to a cell broadcast signaling and/or a UE dedicated signaling. The UE applies each of the at least one spectrum technology for each corresponding uplink transmission or signaling according to the signaling or the configuration message.

The one or more spread spectrum technologies may be referred as to at least one of a sequence hopping, sequence group hopping/shifting, cyclic time shift hopping/remapping and orthogonal cover code. In other words, the UE can be configured with sequence hopping, sequence group hopping/shifting, cyclic time shift hopping/remapping and/or orthogonal cover code by cell broadcasting signaling and/or UE dedicated signaling (e.g. assume cell ID is known) for the uplink transmission. The hopping/shifting patterns corresponding to sequence group hopping is preferably generated by a pseudo random sequence generator and used by the UE. The number of the hopping/shifting patterns is greater than seventeen. Compared to the prior art, more hopping/shift patterns are available.

In addition, the uplink transmission may be referred as to PUSCH transmission, PUCCH transmission or reference signal transmission.

Please refer to FIG. 5, which is a flow chart of an exemplary process 50. The process 50 is used for enhancing downlink transmission for a network in a wireless communication system. The wireless communication system could be the wireless communication system 10. The process 50 can be compiled into the program code 214 and includes the following steps:

Step 500: Start.

Step 502: Send a signaling or a configuration message to a UE to dynamically or semi-statically change a configuration of the mobile device for uplink transmission or signaling by the UE.

Step 504: End.

According to the process 50, the network sends a signaling or a configuration message to the UE to dynamically or semi-statically change a configuration of the UE for uplink transmission or signaling by the UE. The signaling may be referred as to a RRC signaling or PDCCH signaling. The configuration may includes configurations on the sequence hopping and/or sequence group hopping/shifting and/or cyclic time shift hopping/remapping and/or orthogonal cover code. In other words, the configuration on sequence hopping, sequence group hopping/shifting, cyclic time shift hopping/remapping and/or orthogonal cover code can be dynamically changed by network (e.g. through configuration by RRC signaling or PDCCH signaling).

Furthermore, the PDCCH signaling dynamically changes at least one of sequence shift offset, hopping pattern, PUCCH resource index and cyclic time shift offset.

Please refer to FIG. 6, which is a flow chart of an exemplary process 60. The process 60 is used for enhancing downlink transmission for a network in a wireless communication system. The wireless communication system could be the wireless communication system 10. The process 60 can be compiled into the program code 214 and includes the following steps:

Step 600: Start.

Step 602: Dynamically change at least one of a repetition factor (RPF), length of a sounding reference signal (SRS) sequence, dynamic SRS transmission duration, the number of the SRS sequence, the number of cyclic time shift, and transmission comb for dynamic SRS transmission.

Step 604: End.

According to the process 60, the network dynamically changes at least one of a repetition factor (RPF), length of a sounding reference signal (SRS) sequence, dynamic SRS transmission duration, the number of the SRS sequence, the number of cyclic time shift, and transmission comb for dynamic SRS transmission. Preferably, the RFR is greater than two. The transmission comb provides another means to multiplex UE reference signals in addition to the cyclic time shift. The dynamic SRS transmission may be aperiodic and scheduled for the UE. For dynamic aperiodic SRS, the network can dynamically and easily adjust UE load on transmitting SRS. Therefore, the length of SRS sequence and number of available SRS sequence in a subframe becomes less restricted (more comb and higher RPF). With higher RPF (e.g. odd number such as 3), SRS RBs could be odd number so as to affect the SRS sequence length.

Therefore, use of a larger RPF could provide more flexibility in how the bandwidth could be allocated between UEs. For example, in HetNet deployment, such flexibility becomes important to randomize possible interference since scheduling coordination among cells in HetNet is relatively difficult.

Please note that the abovementioned steps including suggested steps can be realized by means that could be hardware, firmware known as a combination of a hardware device and computer instructions and data that reside as read-only software on the hardware device, or an electronic system. Examples of hardware can include analog, digital and mixed circuits known as microcircuit, microchip, or silicon chip. Examples of the electronic system can include system on chip (SOC), system in package (Sip), computer on module (COM), and the communication device 20 in which the processing means 200 processes the program code 214 related to the abovementioned processes and the processed results can enhance uplink transmission in the wireless communications system 10.

To sum up, the UE applies more hopping/shifting patterns to a spread spectrum technology for the uplink transmission. And the network dynamic change configuration on sequence hopping, sequence hopping/shifting, cyclic time shift hopping/remapping and/or orthogonal cover code. In addition, the network uses a larger RFR to provide more flexibility for bandwidth allocation between UEs.

Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims. 

1. A method of enhancing uplink transmission or signaling for a mobile in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving a signaling or configuration message of at least one spectrum technology utilized for corresponding uplink transmission or signaling; and applying each of the at least one spectrum technology for each corresponding uplink transmission or signaling according to the signaling or the configuration message.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the signaling or the configuration message comprises at least one of a cell broadcast signaling, a radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a physical downlink control (PDCCH) signaling and a mobile device dedicated signaling.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one spectrum technology comprises at least one of at least one sequence hopping, at least one sequence group hopping, at least one sequence group shifting, at least one cyclic time shift hopping, at least one cyclic time shift remapping and at least one orthogonal cover code or the each of the at least one spectrum technology comprises at least one of a sequence hopping, a sequence group hopping, a sequence group shifting, a cyclic time shift hopping, a cyclic time shift remapping and a orthogonal cover code.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one sequence group hopping, used by the mobile device, corresponds to at least one of sequence group hopping patterns, which is generated by a pseudo random sequence generator and the number of the generated sequence group hopping patterns is greater than seventeen.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the corresponding uplink transmission or signaling comprises physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission, physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission or reference signal transmission.
 6. A method of enhancing uplink transmission for a network in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: sending a signaling or a configuration message to a mobile device to dynamically or semi-statically change a configuration of the mobile device for uplink transmission or signaling by the mobile device.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the configuration for the uplink transmission or signaling by the mobile device comprises at least one of at least one sequence hopping, at least one sequence group hopping, at least one sequence group shifting, at least one cyclic time shift hopping, at least one cyclic time shift remapping and at least one orthogonal cover code, or configuration for each of the UL transmission or signaling comprises at least one of a sequence hopping, a sequence group hopping, a sequence group shifting, a cyclic time shift hopping, a cyclic time shift remapping and a orthogonal cover code.
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein the signaling or the configuration message comprises at least one of a cell broadcast signaling, a mobile device dedicated signaling, a radio resource control (RRC) signaling, and a physical downlink control (PDCCH) signaling.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the PDCCH signaling dynamically changes at least one of sequence shift offset, hopping pattern, physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource index and cyclic time shift offset.
 10. A method of enhancing uplink transmission for a network in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: dynamically changing at least one of a repetition factor (RPF), length of a sounding reference signal (SRS) sequence, dynamic SRS transmission duration, the number of the SRS sequence, the number of cyclic time shift, and transmission comb for dynamic SRS transmission.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the dynamic SRS transmission is aperiodic and scheduled for a mobile device.
 12. A communication device of enhancing uplink transmission or signaling for a mobile in a wireless communication system, the communication device comprising: means for receiving a signaling or configuration message of at least one spectrum technology utilized for corresponding uplink transmission or signaling; and means for applying each of the at least one spectrum technology for each corresponding uplink transmission or signaling according to the signaling or the configuration message.
 13. The communication device of claim 12, wherein the signaling or the configuration message comprises at least one of a cell broadcast signaling, a radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a physical downlink control (PDCCH) signaling and a mobile device dedicated signaling.
 14. The communication device of claim 12, wherein the at least one spectrum technology comprises at least one of at least one sequence hopping, at least one sequence group hopping, at least one sequence group shifting, at least one cyclic time shift hopping, at least one cyclic time shift remapping and at least one orthogonal cover code or the each of the at least one spectrum technology comprises at least one of a sequence hopping, a sequence group hopping, a sequence group shifting, a cyclic time shift hopping, a cyclic time shift remapping and a orthogonal cover code.
 15. The communication device of claim 14, wherein the at least one sequence group hopping, used by the mobile device, corresponds to at least one of sequence group hopping patterns, which is generated by a pseudo random sequence generator and the number of the generated sequence group hopping patterns is greater than seventeen.
 16. The communication device of claim 12, wherein the corresponding uplink transmission or signaling comprises physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission, physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission or reference signal transmission.
 17. A communication device of enhancing uplink transmission for a network in a wireless communication system, the communication device comprising: means for sending a signaling or a configuration message to a mobile device to dynamically or semi-statically change a configuration of the mobile device for uplink transmission or signaling by the mobile device.
 18. The communication device of claim 17, wherein the configuration for the uplink transmission or signaling by the mobile device comprises at least one of at least one sequence hopping, at least one sequence group hopping, at least one sequence group shifting, at least one cyclic time shift hopping, at least one cyclic time shift remapping and at least one orthogonal cover code, or configuration for each of the UL transmission or signaling comprises at least one of a sequence hopping, a sequence group hopping, a sequence group shifting, a cyclic time shift hopping, a cyclic time shift remapping and a orthogonal cover code.
 19. The communication device of claim 17, wherein the signaling or the configuration message comprises at least one of a cell broadcast signaling, a mobile device dedicated signaling, a radio resource control (RRC) signaling, and a physical downlink control (PDCCH) signaling.
 20. The communication device of claim 19, wherein the PDCCH signaling dynamically changes at least one of sequence shift offset, hopping pattern, physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource index and cyclic time shift offset.
 21. A communication device of enhancing uplink transmission for a network in a wireless communication system, the communication device comprising: means for dynamically changing at least one of a repetition factor (RPF), length of a sounding reference signal (SRS) sequence, dynamic SRS transmission duration, the number of the SRS sequence, the number of cyclic time shift, and transmission comb for dynamic SRS transmission.
 22. The communication device of claim 21, wherein the dynamic SRS transmission is aperiodic and scheduled for a mobile device. 